Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/181

DOCTRINAIRES DODD 173 doctors' commons was the prerogative will office, in which were kept all wills admitted to probate in the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury, which had jurisdic- tion over nearly all such business in the king- dom. The original testaments preserved here dated from 1483, the copies from 1383. Great care was taken to prevent mutilation. No stranger was allowed to make a memorandum from either the wills or the index; extracts or transcripts, when wanted, were written out by the attending copyists, but any person was allowed to examine a will on payment of the regular fee. Attached to the college were 34 proctors, who gave licenses for marriages, and performed the duties of solicitors. Only doc- tors of the civil law were allowed to practise in the courts held in doctors' commons. By acts of parliament passed Aug. 25 and 28, 1857, and Aug. 2, 1858, the importance of doctors' commons was in great measure de- stroyed. Jurisdiction in all testamentary, di- vorce, and matrimonial cases was transferred from the ecclesiastical tribunals to a court of probate, and a court for divorce and matri- monial causes. A central office for the regis- try of wills was opened, with branches in the chief towns of the kingdom, and judges of ec- clesiastical courts were ordered to transmit to it all wills in their possession. Serjeants and barristers at law were admitted to practise in the probate court, but compensation was made to the displaced proctors to the amount of one third of the average profits of their business, payable during their natural lives, and officers of the ecclesiastical courts were transferred to corresponding positions in the new probate court. Marriage licenses were to be granted as before. The same restrictions relative to the examining of wills continued in force in the new registry office, and drew forth a remon- strance from literary men early in 1859. The jurisdiction of the court of delegates is now transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council, but the court of arches, the archdeacon's court, and the faculty court still exist for the hearing of ecclesiastical causes. DOCTRINAIRES, a French constitutionalist party, which originated after the restoration of the Bourbons, and represented the interests of liberalism and progress, as opposed to the ultra royalists, in the executive government and legislature. Royer-Collard, the duke de Broglie, and Guizot were its foremost leaders. They were called doctrinaires because they in- sisted that the state should be administered in accordance with rational doctrines and de- monstrable political utility, rather than with party formulas or the passion of the hour. After the revolution of July, 1830, when they came into power, they assumed a conservative position in antagonism with the republicans and radicals. After February, 1848, the doc- trinaires were no more heard of. DOD. L Daniel, an American machinist, born in Virginia, Sept. 28, 1788, died in New York, May 9, 1823. His father was distinguished for his versatile mechanical genius. Daniel received a thorough scientific education, and declined an appointment as professor of mathe- matics in Rutgers college to devote himself to the manufacture of engines for steamboats, then a new invention. He settled at Eliza- bethtown, N. J., and built for the steamboat Seahorse an engine of different construction from any former one; it proved superior to them all, and was generally adopted. In 1818 he built an engine for the steamship Savannah, which the next year made the first voyage across the Atlantic ever performed by a steam- ship, and returned in safety after visiting Eng- land and Russia. The experiment was pecu- niarily unprofitable, and was not immediately repeated. He removed in 1821 to New York city, where he was reputed the most success- ful engine builder in the United States. In 1823, having altered the machinery of a steam- boat, he went on board of her to witness in a trial trip on the East river the effect of his changes. The boiler exploded, and so severely injured Mr. Dod that he survived but a few days. II. Albert Baldwin, D. D., an American scholar, son of the preceding, born in Mendham, N. J., March 24, 1805, died in Princeton, Nov. 20, 1845. He graduated at Princeton college in 1822, and after spending more than three years in private teaching in Fredericksburg, Va., returned to Princeton in 1826 as a student in the theological seminary. From 1827 to 1829 he was a tutor in the college, and in 1830 was elected professor of mathematics, continu- ing in this post till his death. He lectured upon architecture and political economy, and wrote occasional review articles, especially for the u Biblical Repertory." An article by him in answer to objections urged against capital punishment was adopted by a committee of the New York legislature as their report. DODD, William, an English clergyman, born at Bourne, Lincolnshire, in May, 1729, exe- cuted in London, June 27, 1777. He studied at the university of Cambridge, where he dis- tinguished himself as a writer both of prose and poetry. He left Cambridge for London in 1750, and the next year married a woman who possessed neither virtue nor fortune, and whose tastes were even more extravagant than his own. He was ordained deacon the same year, and priest in 1753, and was appointed to the vicarage of West Ham, near London, where he obtained great success by his im- pressive eloquence. His reputation so in- creased that he was quickly called to London as a preacher, retaining his former benefice. He now abandoned himself to extravagance and excesses. In the hope of being able to meet his increasing expenses, he multiplied his labors as editor and author, and in the course of several years published various original pieces, translations, and new editions of es- teemed works. He was intrusted in 1763 with the care of the education of Philip Stan-